The way I see it: Htein Lin

Art is like my scuba gear. Painting allowed me to breathe when it felt like there was no other air in our 10ft by 12ft jail cell. It stopped me from going crazy. Poetry did the same for some of my comrades.

2 Should politics and art mix?

They shouldn’t generally be mixed, but sometimes they get tangled up and better art can emerge, like Guernica. I was swallowed up twice by politics, and had to spend four years in the jungle, and then six years in jail. I tried to extract myself but I ended up making paintings.

3 Is your work for the many or for the few?

When I painted in prison, it was just for the few: me, my two poet cellmates and a warder. I never imagined at the time that seven years later the paintings would be on show to the many, least of all in London.